Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) was the philosopher of Königsberg whose three Critiques made him a central Enlightenment thinker. From a Pietist harness-maker's household, he entered Königsberg University at sixteen and studied under Martin Knutzen. From 1746 he tutored in the countryside, then lectured from 1755 and wrote on science, proposing that the solar system formed from a nebula.

Made professor of logic and metaphysics in 1770, he published little for ten years, woken from his dogmatic slumber, he said, by David Hume. The Critique of Pure Reason (1781), over 800 dense pages, initially disappointed readers; after his 1783 Prolegomena he became the most famous philosopher of his day.

The Critiques of Practical Reason (1788) and Judgment (1790) followed. In 1794 a royal order barred him from writing or speaking publicly on religion. He never married; neighbours reportedly set their watches by his daily walk. He died in Königsberg in 1804.